Donald R. Fryxell

April 13, 1915-Nov. 9, 1988

A tribute on the centennial of his birth.

Teaching English literature might have seemed an unlikely dream for a second-generation American, part of the first generation in his Swedish-immigrant family to go to college. But literature was the great love of Donald R. Fryxell’s life, second only to his family and possibly golf. And many of his students became like family to “Doc,” as some called their beloved professor and mentor. As one of his English majors, Anne Shepler Christopherson, commented in a tribute from the Augustana College class of 1957, “Don Fryxell opened my eyes to the importance of the interaction of history and literature on the world.”

Don Fryxell’s grandfather, Gustav (Magnusson) Fryxell (1857-1947) emigrated from Vättlösa, Skaraborg, Sweden, with brother John (Sven Johan). In Sweden, the family had been so poor that one winter when Gustav lost his coat he had to stay indoors until spring because they couldn’t afford to buy him a replacement. Another time, according to The Story of John Fryxell by his son Fritiof (who became a noted geologist), the family’s only cow starved to death. Gustav and John arrived at Castle Garden, in the port of New York City, in 1876, and opted to keep John’s “Army name” from his service in the Swedish military, Fryxell, rather than their original Swedish surname, Magnusson (from their father, Magnus Svensson, using the traditional patronymic system).

Things did not get much better for the family in “Amerika,” even after the brothers settled in Moline, Illinois, and began families of their own. Gustav’s eldest son, Victor (1883-1962), worked in carriage and car factories, and city directories variously list his occupation as “door hanger,” “assembler” and “seat maker.” (Victor was also a skilled carpenter and woodworker, skills his son Don would proudly lack.) With wife Olga (Lundeen, 1889-1947), Victor had four children: Burton (1910-1983), Arthur (1912-1996), Donald and Virginia (1921-2001). When Don attended Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, during the depths of the Depression, he helped pay his way by caddying—beginning a lifelong love of golf—and working as a trainer for the sports teams. He would often come home for lunch, which he later recalled consisting of “onion sandwiches.”

Don Fryxell earned his bachelor’s degree from Augustana in 1938 and a master’s from the University of Chicago in 1939, after which he taught briefly at what is now New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He would ultimately earn his PhD in English in 1953 from the University of Kentucky, after graduate work including at the University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

First, however, he made what would prove to be the most important move of his life, from Las Cruces to Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, to teach English in 1941. There he met Lucy Dickinson (1919-2003), another devotee of literature, whom he would marry in Fresno, California, on Dec. 22, 1942.

World War II interrupted Don’s teaching career, as he was drafted barely six months after Pearl Harbor. He served unhappily in the US Army Air Force at various domestic bases before being posted to the Philippines near the war’s end. There he edited the Sun Setter camp newspaper until being released to civilian life in January 1946.

Don and Lucy taught English at Wayne State University in Detroit from 1946-47 and Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, from 1947-1953. They joined the faculty at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD (the Norwegian version of his alma mater), in 1953. He was the long-time chairman of the English department and also served as chairman of the Humanities division, playing a key role in the design and development of the Humanities Center on the Summit Avenue side of the campus. He also twice won the faculty golf championship. Together, Don and Lucy endowed a scholarship fund at Augustana that continues to help English and journalism majors pay for their education.

They had one son, David, who graduated from Augustana in 1978 with a degree in journalism and English. David married a fellow “faculty brat,” Lisa Forman, whose father Richard Forman was a longtime member of the math faculty. They now live in Tucson, Arizona. Don and Lucy’s granddaughter, Courtney, is married to Michael Graziano and lives in the Denver area.

Lucy (Dickinson) Fryxell

Not long after his retirement and only months after finally quitting smoking, Donald R. Fryxell died at home from cancer on Nov. 9, 1988. His ashes were scattered in the grove of trees outside the Humanities Center on the Augustana campus. Following Lucy’s death in 2003, the couple’s home on Lincoln Avenue in Sioux Falls was donated to Augustana College to build their scholarship endowment, along with their extensive library of the books they loved.

On what would have been Don Fryxell’s 100th birthday, his legacy lives on in the lives and careers of his students and in their own students. He was not a great believer in heaven, but if there is one, he no doubt celebrated his birthday by playing a round of golf and then settling down with a good book, either a murder mystery or one of his favorites from English literature. If there’s no golf, he might have said, it can’t be heaven.